Somewhere Between Dinner and an Early Lunch
by lillypilly11
Summary: A story about what happens when things don't turn out quite the way you expect. Sophie/Nate. Now complete.
1. Brunch

A/N: Lol I've been trying to post this for three days! The site outage did give me a chance to get the second chapter written, however, so that will be up soon. Anyway, thought I'd try some humour with this story. Hopefully others will find this scenario as amusing a prospect as I do. ;-) I also just wanted to say that there's a line in this where Sophie tells Nate he thinks too much, which is exactly what she says to him at one point in the most recent episode! But I wrote that line like a week before the episode aired, so it's not copied, I swear! (Haha probably nobody cares in the least, but it's so annoying when things like that happen!!)

Spoilers: None, doesn't really refer to any specific episodes.

Somewhere Between Dinner and an Early Lunch

by LillyPilly

* * *

Part One: Brunch

"So..." Nate said slowly, giving Sophie the impression he wasn't sure what he was going to say next, but felt like he needed to fill the silence.

"Don't worry," she said.

"Oh I'm not," he hurried to say. "I'm not worried, no."

"No?"

"Yeah, no. Nothing to worry about, right?"

"Of course not."

They smiled at each other briefly, then, as one, their gazes lifted to the digital display over the doors.

This was, Sophie decided as the numbers slowly climbed, the longest elevator ride in history. It wasn't even that tall a building.

Finally, though, they arrived, the doors parted, and beside her Nate gave a sigh that sounded suspiciously like heartfelt relief as he stepped out onto their floor. She followed more sedately, only to find him paused in the entrance to their offices. Through the open doorway, she could see the reception area beyond was empty as usual. Sophie took a few steps towards him, watching as he scratched his forehead, hesitating, before turning back to face her.

"Look," he sounded reluctant to be saying anything, "I know... we have things to... discuss but..."

She waited a few seconds to see if any more words would be forthcoming. "Nate?" she prompted.

"It's just that... things shouldn't be weird, you know, I mean, right? With the others and, you know, it could be..."

She took pity on him. He was trying, after all. "Well we wouldn't want things to be weird," she said.

"Right." He held out a hand gratefully. "Thank you. So we'll, I mean, we'll talk. Just... later. For now we'll keep things," he gestured vaguely, "Quiet." He looked at her hopefully.

"Keep what quiet?" she asked, giving him the bland, pleasant expression she usually reserved for service-people and Parker when she was talking about explosives.

It actually took him a second to catch on. That's how much this was affecting him, she realised, and it solidified her resolve to do what had to be done.

"Oh, right," he said, smiling genuinely after a beat. "Exactly."

She patted his arm as she moved past him through the door. "Come on, they're probably waiting."

Once inside, Nate made a beeline for his office, calling out, "Yeah, guys, be there in a second!"

Sophie went and poured herself a much-needed coffee in the kitchen, then went to join Hardison, Parker and Eliot at the conference table.

"Morning," she said as she took her seat, "Sorry, are we late?"

Nate came in then, moving to his usual place at the head of the table. "Yeah, we're late, so let's get started. Our next potential client, Emily Rosen, coming in tomorrow morning for a meeting, but before she does, how about a little prep work? Hardison --"

"Sorry," Sophie interrupted the flow of his words, holding up a hand, "Nate, do you mind?"

"Uh," he began.

"Thanks," she went on swiftly. "It's just that there's something I wanted to say with everyone here, before we get down to business." She glanced around the table to see she had everyone's attention. Nate was looking immediately wary, his mind clearly racing as he tried to figure out what she was doing. "The fact is," she said without further preamble, "Nate and I have started sleeping together." She paused. Nate made a strangled noise. So did Hardison, because he had just taken a sip of soda and was trying to breathe. "While it's not really anyone's business, of course, I just thought we should go for honesty first. You know, honesty is the best policy, and this is something that could affect us all, the way we function as a team."

"Sophie what the hell -- ?" Nate was staring at her through his hands, which were cradling his head. His jaw slack, he was almost speechless.

The others weren't much better. Sophie could hardly hold in the smile threatening. She did love an audience. "What?" she looked innocently back into Nate's increasingly thunderous eyes. "Isn't it better, having it all out in the open? Or are you upset because I implied this would be an ongoing thing? Look, just because last night was didn't go so well..."

There was another strangled sound, this time from Eliot, who was choking back a laugh.

"What!" Nate burst out. "What, what are you doing?"

"Well I mean it was awful, wasn't it, but that doesn't mean you and I aren't --"

"Stop talking! I don't... I... why are you even -- ?" He was on his feet now.

The others were frozen, swinging back and forth between the two of them like spectators at a tennis game.

"One night of bad sex," she said, "it's not the end of the world."

Nate actually gripped his hair, then, and for a moment Sophie thought they were going to be sweeping the entire lot off the floor after this was over. But then, staring blankly ahead, he turned and headed for his office.

There was a stunned silence in his wake.

Then Parker said, "The sex was bad? Why, what was wrong with it?"

"What the... _hell_ was that?" Hardison said.

"Erectile dysfunction?" Parker continued.

"Oh my god." The groan could be heard from the direction Nate had gone, and then there was the click of the door closing.

Sophie sighed and sat back in her chair. Three pairs of eyes watched her. "You really want the gory details?" she said.

"_No_," replied Hardison immediately. "No, we do not want the... _any_ of the details."

But Eliot sat forward, looking almost gleeful. "Tell us about the bad sex!"

"Did one of you want to do weird stuff and the other one didn't? That's happened to me before." At Parker's words, both men turned to look at the young woman with sudden interest.

Sophie though just shook her head. "No, it wasn't anything like that. Well yes, it was a disaster, really, a big disaster. But it was just... well, I mean, I was nervous, all tensed up. And he was, well, you know how Nate tends to over-think things."

Eliot's face screwed up in sympathy. "Ooh, ouch."

"Yeah," she nodded. "It wasn't pretty. But," she went on brightly, "It's going to be okay. Thanks everyone, by the way."

"Uh, for what now?" Hardison said.

"Look I know I've dragged you all into the middle of it, but you were a big help." A set of blank looks was her reply. She went on to elaborate. "This morning, he could barely look at me. It was a big let down and if I let him think about that all day, well. Not good." She shrugged. "Now, though, he's not thinking about that, he just wants to kill me."

"And that's a good thing?" Hardison said. She just looked at him, giving him the chance to work it out for himself. "Oh. Oh wait. That's a good thing, isn't it? I did not want to know that."

"So Nate being mad at Sophie means good sex," Parker said, with an expression like she was trying to work out the logic and coming up with a few problems. "So why haven't they been having good sex more often?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. "You've got a good point there," she muttered, staring at Nate's closed door.

"The guy definitely won't be over-thinking things," Eliot offered.

"He _might_ be in there drinking himself into a stupor, though," Hardison added.

"Another good point." She sighed. For a moment she had to wonder whether her plan hadn't worked a little too well.

"Guys, we're going to lunch," Eliot announced suddenly, standing, grabbing Hardison's arm and dragging him up out of his chair in one smooth motion.

"Hey, oh we are now? Oh, we are. Yes, lunch," the younger man agreed, straightening his shirt as Eliot glared at him.

"It's ten-fifteen," Parker said.

Hardison helped Eliot lever her up out of her chair. "We'll get muffins then. A bagel or something."

As they passed by her chair, Eliot leaned over and spoke out the side of his mouth. "What, like an hour?"

Her mouth twisted up in a smirk and she drew idly on the surface of the table as she replied, "Two."

Eliot straightened, and when she glanced up at him he looked a little impressed. "Damn," he muttered.

They left, and she sat there a while, giving them time to get on the lift and descend to the lobby, following their path out of the building in her mind. Though really, she was giving herself time, alone here in the quiet of the empty conference room.

Last night had been a disaster, and things were still so new between them, still tentative, and fragile... It was difficult not to find it all discouraging. But anyway, she reflected as she got to her feet, she'd have never got anywhere in life if she'd gone around leaving things to sort themselves out. And when in doubt, just stick to the plan. It was a strategy that had rarely let her down. Feeling confidence returning, and banishing all thoughts of the previous evening because they certainly weren't going to be of any use here and now, she went and let herself into Nate's office without pausing to knock.

"Honesty is the best _policy?_" he ground out when he saw her, his jaw clenched tight. He was standing by the window, hand gripping a glass tumbler so hard she suspected it might shatter at any moment. He looked, on the whole, very tense.

"Nate," she said, leaning back against the door and letting it click shut, "You think too much."

"Know what I'm thinking right now, Sophie?"

"No." She pushed away from the door, and began unbuttoning her blouse as she paced towards him. "Why don't you tell me?"

"I... ah..." was as far as he got as she shrugged out of the shirt, letting it fall to the floor. He had the look of a man who had suddenly lost his train of thought.

_Finally_.

"You," he pointed a finger at her as she came to stand before him. She easily plucked the glass from his now loose grip and set it down on the corner of the desk. He swallowed hard and went on, "You are in so much trouble."

"Good." She took hold of his lapels. "Sounds like a place to start."

end part one

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Endnotes: This story is going to work backwards, so the next chapters will take us back through the disastrous events of the early morning and previous evening. I don't really write explicit stuff, but there will be some sexual content, just not enough to need an 'M' rating, I don't think. Hope you enjoyed, comments and criticism welcome!


	2. Breakfast

Somewhere Between Dinner and an Early Lunch

by LillyPilly

* * *

Part 2: Breakfast

She came awake slowly, with a vague sense that something was different this morning. She remembered tossing and turning through the night, falling into a deep sleep finally in the early hours of the morning. She remembered Nate beside her...

Well all right _that_ was different.

She'd just finished the thought when the door opposite the foot of her bed opened suddenly. She pushed up on an elbow, startled suddenly fully awake.

"Nate?"

"Hi," he said, pausing in the doorway, "Sorry, I didn't want to wake you..."

She sat up all the way, some presence of mind telling her to hold the sheet to her chest because she was, after all, very naked. She lifted a hand and pushed her hair away from her face. "Um, you didn't," she managed after a moment, in a voice thick with sleep. She blinked at him, her thoughts a jumble. Nate was standing there, having just emerged from her bathroom, dressed in last night's trousers and shirt, his hair wet. Last night... Oh yes. Last night.

"Are... you okay?" he asked hesitantly.

She started to answer and found herself in the middle of a yawn instead, so she just nodded. "Oh, yeah, I mean... yeah. Are you?"

"Yeah, yes sure." He nodded. "Uh."

Well, the thought arose, this was awkward. Another thought occurred, and then she was frowning. "Were you just going to leave?"

"No! No, I wasn't just going to leave."

"I can see you edging towards your shoes."

"Well yeah, I was going to leave." Her jaw dropped indignantly and he hurried to add, "But it's not like that, I mean we... really overslept, we're kind of late."

For the first time since waking, she looked over at the clock. "Oh, you're right. Sorry, we should get going, shouldn't we." She eased her legs over the side of the bed, pausing there to rub her face tiredly and run her fingers back through her messy morning hair. Frankly, getting up and going to work was the last thing she wanted to do. She yawned again. "How did you sleep?"

"Oh fine, fine. Uh, here." She looked up to find him round her side of the bed, holding out her robe. She took it, a glance down belatedly reminding her that, yep, still naked.

As she slipped on the robe and got to her feet, Nate lingered at her side, eyes averted, and _really_, this was just taking the prize for most awkward morning after in her experience. Fortunately, she reflected as she tied the sash at her waist, she was still only half-awake and not ready to ponder the broader implications of this fact.

"It's not that I want to rush out like this," he said.

His face very clearly said otherwise.

Her eyes narrowed, and between one breath and the next she considered options. One was to take a step closer, put her arms around his neck, kiss him and see if the second time wasn't the charm. Another involved throwing something heavy at him. What she did was say, "You really weren't going to wake me up, were you?"

"Sophie..."

"_Nate,_" she echoed, stepping away from him and moving over to her dressing table to retrieve her hairbrush. "Look, it's too early to make a fuss about this."

"It's after nine," he pointed out.

She mustered up a glare; not too much of a struggle, all things considered. "Still too early."

"Right." She watched amusement pass over his features briefly. "Uh, okay I guess I'll go."

He seemed unsure whether he was asking a question or telling her. She just nodded and waved a hand. It really was early, or felt like it anyway. And there was this strange, stilted atmosphere between them, like they were walking on eggshells. Awkwardly. And she didn't know what to do about it. Not without a little time to think first, anyway. And a shower, _definitely_ a shower, not to mention some toothpaste.

She hadn't even brushed her teeth last night before falling asleep. She could still taste the coffee they'd shared last thing.

"Nate," she said, stopping him halfway to the door. She'd just remembered something. "Actually, you can't go, you'll need to wait for me. I don't have my car, remember?"

"Oh, right. Uh, can't you call for a cab? It's just that it's late and I have to go home first --"

"But you're on the way. Don't worry, just give me fifteen minutes and I'll be ready." For the first time that morning he looked straight at her. It was a very dubious look. "What?" she said, defensively. "I can be quick when I have to."

"I've seen you getting ready --"

"Yes, for jobs, when I have to look just right!" She put her hands on her hips. "You realise you're just taking up more time arguing with me about this."

The look turned irritated and for a moment she thought he was going to keep arguing with her. Then he blinked and looked away, seeming to deflate between one breath and the next. "Yeah, okay. Sorry, of course I'll wait."

She stared at the side of his head, frustrated. Was this how it was going to be now?

"Why don't you go and have some breakfast," she suggested, keeping her voice even with an effort. "Make coffee. I'll be down in fifteen minutes. Twenty at the most," she added as he made it to the threshold, just to see the slight pause, the tensing of his shoulders, and smiled, knowing she'd annoyed him.

Thirty-five minutes later, she came downstairs to find him at her kitchen table, reading her paper and drinking her coffee. Over the top of the paper she could see his hair had dried into an unruly mess -- which was nothing new for Nate, to be honest. The man seemed to have developed a fear of combs in recent years. She had a sudden urge to go and run her fingers through the mess, to lean down and kiss him, endearing, difficult man that he was. This morning, she wasn't sure it would be welcome. They hadn't touched since he'd left her bed sometime before she woke up.

So instead, she went over and took his coffee cup from where it was sitting next to his hand, finishing it off with a quick swig before leaving it in the kitchen sink. "Aren't we going to be late?" she said.

"Oh are we hurrying now?" he replied dryly, lowering the paper and pushing back his chair. "I hadn't noticed."

She had, in fact, spent the last few minutes upstairs dragging her feet, just waiting to see if he would come storming up the stairs to hurry her along at the top of his voice. No such luck, unfortunately. Not that she relished the idea of being yelled at first thing in the morning, but if something would jolt him out of this apathy, she'd take it.

It was a quiet trip over to Nate's apartment building. This late in the morning traffic was light, and he turned on the radio and they listened to current affairs being discussed for the few minutes it took to get there.

It wasn't until she was waiting alone in the car, as Nate went upstairs for a quick change of clothes, that she began to formulate a plan in her head.

So last night had not been the perfect culmination to their long, drawn out courtship -- so what? It had certainly started out all right, and if there hadn't exactly been fireworks, that didn't mean there could be any in the future. It was, she decided, a guy thing. He was just being a man about it, and that was fine, because she wasn't. Moreover, she knew how to play dirty. He would thank her for it afterwards.

When Nate came back to the car, having found fresh clothes and a razor, he slid back into the drivers seat and she smiled over at him, perhaps just a little too wide.

"What?" he said, as he turned the key, the engine starting up.

"Nothing." She shrugged innocently, and turned to look out the window instead.

end part two


	3. Nightcap

Somewhere Between Dinner and an Early Lunch

by LillyPilly

* * *

Part 3: Nightcap

There wasn't anything to be nervous about. This is what she told herself, but couldn't completely suppress the faint flutter of butterflies in her stomach as they left Nate's car parked in the driveway and she showed him inside. It was so warm here at this time of year that neither of them had coats, and so she brought him straight through, turning on a few lights as they went, pointing out the living room and dining room, the downstairs bathroom, if for no other reason than that this was what one did when having someone new in your home. They ended up in the kitchen at the back of the house, where she rounded on him.

"So did you really want coffee?" she said boldly.

He shrugged, gave a laugh. "Were you really offering?"

She considered him for a moment. He was not, apparently, making any moves to sweep her up in his arms and carry her off to bed. She rolled her eyes, mostly at herself, and said, "How about I make some and we'll see how it goes."

He nodded. "Yeah, okay." Neither of them, it seemed, quite knew what to do with themselves.

And dinner had gone so well, she reflected, as she got the coffee on. She saw him leaning slightly over the counter to peer out the window and she crossed to the doors leading outside to flip on the terrace lights.

"What, no pool?" he murmured as he surveyed the view.

She returned to his side and pointed. "Actually, there is one, see that path leading down there? It's too dark that way, you can't see it. I haven't had much use out of it, to be honest, my gardener spends more time out there than I do."

He made some comment in reply about her interest in real estate, and then, for some reason, they were discussing the LA property market. She was really going to need this coffee now, was the thought running through the background of her mind as she got down a pair of cups, and milk from the fridge, while he stood out of the way and they kept up a steady stream of inane conversation between them.

She turned away from his gaze to sort idly through a few days worth of mail she'd been meaning to get around to. The atmosphere in the kitchen wasn't awkward, exactly, but there wasn't the easy air of familiarity there had been over dinner. This part, here and now, was all new to them. It was practically domestic, for god's sake. She might have wondered who they were kidding with this play at being civilised, but they were both of them participating, waiting for something. And no, it wasn't for the coffee maker to finish its gurgling.

Then she wondered, not for the first time in the lengthy span of their acquaintance, whether he would ever be capable of making the first move. It made her want to wait him out, just to see how long it would take him to snap. But there was a risk in that. She knew how high the stakes were for her, but as far as he was concerned... she'd never been certain. If there was one thing she hated, it was leaving things to chance.

Finally, the coffee ready, she poured for them both, adding milk to hers and leaving his black. She handed him his cup and took hers to sit at her breakfast table over in the corner, where the sun came in of a morning. He didn't join her, remaining standing with his hip propped against the counter.

"Well it's a nice place," he offered, lifting the cup to his lips. "It suits you."

"Thanks." She took a breath. When it came down to it, the coffee wasn't much help at all. "You could have come over to see it before."

"Sure, sure, well no not really. It wasn't because I didn't want to..."

"Didn't want to have coffee with me?" She smiled in brief amusement. "It's just that nothing's ever that easy. You were being so careful of this -- us -- and I understand, I do. But um, just so we're clear, Nate, tell me why now."

"Why now?"

"Yes. And use small words."

He laughed, and there was a reason she was staying seated five or six feet away, and not standing beside him, because if she was over there within reach she would be thinking about tossing the explanations and dragging him off to bed. To be honest, she was thinking about that anyway.

But then he turned away, folding his arms across his chest and looking out over her back garden again, and she knew that meant he wasn't ready to be analysed about this. She'd learnt this about him the hard way.

"Small words, okay," he said. "Okay, how about I couldn't think up any more excuses not to -- not to try... _this_ out."

She looked seriously down into her coffee. "Is that a lie?"

"Not a lie. Exactly."

"Well it's not a very good answer."

"The only one you're getting." At the look she gave him he laughed again. "You can't have things your own way all the time."

"My mother used to tell me that when I was very young. I never believed her -- she wasn't very good on follow-through, to be honest. I always got my way in the end."

"And now that's a lie."

"Not exactly." She smiled, tracing a finger around the rim of her cup, quiet for a moment. Then she got to her feet. "Well at least we're even." She drank from her cup again, then went to place it in the sink to be washed later. Then she stepped between him and the counter, touching his arms which were folded across his chest and easing them down to his sides, replacing them with her hands sliding under the lapels of his jacket and up around his neck. She looked up to find him watching her intently, a faint smile hinting at the corners of his mouth.

"Nate," she said, "Do you think we've observed the usual social niceties enough, now?"

"God, yes." There was barely a split second between the end of his words and when his mouth came down on hers.

She moaned a little as his tongue found hers and his arms came around to pull her against him. For a while she was simply lost in it, the heat of his mouth, the way he was kissing her with an intensity she'd always known was lurking behind those smouldering eyes of his.

He pulled back abruptly. "It's just -- I wasn't _there_ before," he said hurriedly, rather out of breath, "That's why."

She panted back at him, "Okay and now you are?"

"Right and if you're ready too then --"

"Shut up I believe you." It came out almost as one word and then she was kissing him again.

"Oh good," he managed against her lips between kisses, "So, upstairs?"

"Oh yeah," she agreed wholeheartedly.

They got caught about halfway up the stairs. He was pressing her into the wall, his hands roaming her waist and hips as she made fists in his hair and held him to her in one long, endless kiss. She was thinking _yes_ and _god, finally,_ that this was actually going to happen...

"Um," she managed as his lips landed in the hollow of her jaw, "Should we... wait, we should, um, probably talk about --"

"'M ready, I'm really ready Sophie could not be more ready in fact."

"No," she began to laugh, hiding her face in his shoulder a moment as her shoulders shook. "No, I meant we should be grown-ups and talk about oh..." His mouth was back on her throat, the rasp of his stubble contrasted with his soft lips and it was so distracting. "Con --" He brought his mouth back to hers. "Mmpf! Contraception?" she got out finally.

"_Oh."_ He stopped. And she had to bite her lip when she saw his hair standing on end from where her fingers had made a mess of it. "Oh, well uh, I, you know, I haven't been with anybody since Maggie, so."

"Really? Oh Nate, that's so... I didn't realise."

"Well I haven't exactly been in a good place for that kind of thing."

"No, I know." She paused, and thought for a second. "Wow, no pressure then."

"Could we move on?" he said shortly.

"Yes! Oh, my turn. Um, well do you really want to hear about..."

"...No. I don't."

"Because there hasn't been anybody since you came and found me in Chicago, but before that..."

"Right."

"I mean it's not like I was pining for you, Nate."

"No! I never said --"

"I had my own life. I didn't even know if I was ever going to see you again." He was rubbing the spot between his eyes. She only half-noticed, too busy getting her point across. "I mean there was that set designer on Macbeth, he had such a fantastic --"

"Sophie!"

"-- Workshop. What?"

"When I pictured us together like this, it never involved a lengthy discussion of all your old boyfriends."

"Sorry. Sorry! I ramble when I'm nervous, you know that."

"You're nervous? Why would you be nervous?" Fondly, he stroked her hair back from her face, smiling, apparently happy now that she'd stopped shoving her sexual history in his face, which, _big_ surprise there. "It's just us," he added.

"Exactly! It's us Nate, and it's taken us ten years to get here and we can't even make it past the bloody stairs!"

"We'll get there," he said with far more confidence than she felt. His hand slid into hers and he tugged her after him.

They made it up to the top of the stairs, and about six feet along the corridor, before she remembered to stop at the hall closet.

"Wait, wait!" She pulled the door open and rummaged through a haphazard collection of items like lint rollers, spare batteries and knitting needles -- from that period of about forty-eight hours when she'd thought she needed a hobby -- and finally found what she was looking for. "Ah, I knew I had these around somewhere. Well, it's not like I've been using them lately."

He grabbed the box from her and turned it over to look for the expiry date. "They're not that old," he said with what she felt was a hint of accusation.

Rolling her eyes she gave him a push towards the end of the hall, which opened out into the master bedroom. He grabbed her hand again and pulled her after him. Finally, they reached the threshold and stumbled inside in the midst of a kiss that was long and deep and barely left her the capacity to breathe, let alone think. She ran her hands restlessly over his shoulders. Nate had lost his jacket somewhere along the way and now he was undoing his cuffs and she brought her hands to his front with the objective of getting his shirt off faster, which they did between them in seconds.

From there it was a world of tactile sensation; his mouth on her shoulders, her collar bone, her hands pushing up his undershirt, feeling the rough planes of his hairy chest, the muscles underneath. His hands were all over her back, which her dress left mostly bare, the simple sensation of his hands on her bare skin making her mouth drop open until his mouth covered hers again and swallowed her gasp. Then his hands were up behind her neck working on the fastening of her halter-neck, the silk straps tied in a simple knot at her nape with the ends trailing down her back. A few seconds passed and he stopped kissing her, apparently having some trouble.

"The hell," he muttered, "Did you get Parker to tie this thing?"

Laughing, she took over for him. "Can't be too careful, wouldn't have wanted a wardrobe malfunction in the middle of our nice dinner. After all," she added as she loosened the knot and the front of her dress fell down about her waist, "I'm not wearing anything underneath.

She smiled as he breathed out audibly, just looking at her. Then they moved as one, her hands flying to his belt buckle as he dove forward -- inevitably, they collided. The next moment they both had a hand clutching their foreheads. Sophie pressed her lips together, uncertain whether to laugh or cry -- this was not going exactly the way she'd hoped. Nate looked at her, mouth twisting, definitely seeing the lighter side of things, and she gave in, letting out a laugh as they reached for each other again.

The problem was, it only went downhill from there.

Certainly not for lack of trying, but a bit of effort and the best of intentions could really only carry them so far when the chemistry was just _off_ somehow. When, somehow, every time he leaned over her he managed to pin her hair painfully to the mattress, and _somehow_ she managed to elbow him in a sensitive area not once but twice. The pressure kept mounting to get it right, and the determined look he got on his face was just so _distracting_, it was no wonder when they got to what should have been the really good part, she... just wasn't feeling it. He knew it, too, and if there had ever been a time to employ a few of her acting skills this would have been it -- but she found she just couldn't.

They got there in the end, that much could be said. But it all seemed like a lot more effort than it should have. Now, Sophie had had good sex, quite a lot of it through the years, she was in her forties after all, and in none of those situations had she ever thought 'thank god that's over'. You weren't supposed to be relieved, you were supposed to want to go again. But in the aftermath the two of them just lay there in a sort of stunned silence. Pity it wasn't the good kind.

She cleared her throat. "Well."

"Yeah..."

"Well that was," she tried again, and still got no further.

"Yeah, yeah it was." He faked a yawn.

_Faked a yawn!_

She would have been outraged at such an obvious ploy if only she wasn't so annoyed she hadn't thought of it first.

"Tired?" she said. "Me too."

He said a very hurried 'good night', and then, adding insult to injury, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. Like she was some aging aunty.

"Good night, Nate," she said quietly, feeling indignation melt away into disappointment. She rolled onto her side, back to him, and they both tried to get to sleep.

end part three

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Endnotes: Well this was the hardest part to write by far, Sophie and Nate just did not want to have awkward sex heheh! Think it turned out okay, though... Or, well, the next chapters will be posted more quickly at least. :-D Oh, and thank you v. much for reviewing, those who have!


	4. Dinner

A/N: There's just a short epilogue to come after this! Was considering another part that jumped even further back in time and sort of sets everything up, but it doesn't really fit in the timeline of the story. Although, I might write it up and post it separately as a prequel of sorts, now that the ideas in my head! Big thanks, as always, to reviewers -- your comments are loved and adored!!

Somewhere Between Dinner and an Early Lunch

by LillyPilly

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Part 4: Dinner

Their latest job had gone well, and it seemed another evening spent hanging around the office, unwinding, was in order. No one seemed to be rushing off home, at any rate.

Sophie came from the kitchen with a bottle of water, past Parker napping on one of the sofas, into the conference room where the guys were just getting settled in front of Hardison's TV wall. She leaned over the back of an empty chair, smiling at Nate when he looked up at her in greeting.

"Hey, sit down," he offered.

She stayed where she was, taking a sip of water. She wasn't overly impressed with their choice of entertainment. "Sports again?"

This was met by a round of affirmatives.

"Aren't any of you interested in anything other than football?"

"Hey our interests are many and varied," Hardison said.

Nate smiled up at her and added, "Yeah, sometimes we watch basketball."

"Real renaissance men." She rolled her eyes as the three of them smirked. She let them sit for a moment, and then went on casually, "Don't you have all of this tivoed, or whatever? So you could, conceivably, watch it any time. Like, just as an example, when I'm not here... oh I don't know, complaining? For however long it takes. I'm just saying, because I can be very persistent when I want to be, in case you hadn't noticed."

The three of them were exchanging looks by then, and as one turned to look up at her. "Sophie," Nate said tightly, "was there something you wanted to do instead?"

She smiled brightly at them, quite happy to ignore the fact that she'd had to use underhanded tactics to get this far. "Well how about we watch a movie?"

Nobody looked very enthusiastic at the suggestion.

"Your pick?" Eliot asked doubtfully.

"Sophie, sometimes people just have like different tastes," Hardison said diplomatically. "Doesn't mean they're _bad_ tastes, exactly, just --"

"Oh come on, this is something we can all enjoy!" She headed out of the room, speaking louder so they could still hear her as she ducked into her office to find the DVD. "One of my favourites, I've been meaning to watch it again and haven't got around to it."

"Is it in black and white?" Hardison yelled back. "Because I have a -- a condition that prevents me from enjoying anything like that. It's called being born after nineteen-eighty!"

She came back around the doorway to find Eliot slapping Hardison's palm for his last comment. "_No,_ it's in colour, and look you don't have to stay, but just, you know, give it a chance. I mean, this is a classic."

"What have you got there?" Nate asked.

She turned the case around to show him the title. "What else?" He laughed as she passed it over to Hardison to set up. "I'm going to make popcorn."

Parker wandered past as she waited on the microwave, scratching at her head sleepily and complaining about loud talking. But she went on into the conference room to join the others for the impromptu movie night, and Sophie followed shortly after with two big bowls for everyone. As she took her seat between Parker and Nate, Hardison started up the movie and the titles for 'To Catch a Thief' began to play.

Surprisingly, everyone seemed to get into it with little trouble, watching without complaint right from the start. Of course it wasn't _that_ surprising, it was Hitchcock after all. That had to be more interesting than American football. Sophie stopped gauging the interest of the people around her and settled back to lose herself in the story. She really did love this movie.

They were about thirty minutes in when she became peripherally aware of Nate moving around beside her. He was looking at her.

"What?" She glanced at him, then back at the screen. They were in the middle of a good bit.

"What? Nothing," he replied, focusing back on the film.

It was about another five minutes later and she'd forgotten all about it, when he leaned over the side of his chair towards her and said, keeping his voice low, "Hey, I was thinking."

"Hm?" She popped a piece of popcorn in her mouth.

"Do you wanna... get some dinner later?"

"I think Hardison wants Thai, he and Eliot were saying earlier," she replied distractedly, all her attention on Grace Kelly. The woman simply lit up the screen.

"No," Nate went on, leaning even closer so he was almost whispering right in her ear, "I meant -- I was thinking, just the two of us. We could go out somewhere."

It took a few seconds for his words to register, but then she turned her head to look at him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"To an actual restaurant? Where we could sit and, uh, talk."

Her mouth dropped open. "Oh." She looked back at the screen, but wasn't seeing the film this time. A warm flush rose up and she had to work to control a smile. "All right. Yeah, we could do that."

"Good. Uh, after the movie?"

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Little wonder, though, she was finding it a bit difficult to concentrate on the plot. She leaned over towards him. "Except I'll need to go home first," she hissed. He gave her a questioning look and she added, "I'm not ready." She gestured down at her comfortable slacks and knitted vest over a blouse. Not exactly fit for a night out.

"You look fine," he said.

"Fine? Exactly. Are we going somewhere nice, because I'm not dressed for that."

He shrugged and spread his hands, still keeping his voice low as he said, "Sophie you have clothes all over this place, can't you just throw something on?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ah, I mean... you always look great."

"And that takes a lot of work that I don't think you appreciate."

"I'm saying you could wear a sack and still be the most beautiful woman in any restaurant in the city."

At that she fell silent. For a moment, anyway. "Well, now you're just laying it on a bit thick. But thank you," she added, and they shared a small smile.

"Are you people going to just talk the entire way through this movie? Because all the whispering and hissing is, it's distracting. Just share with the class, we can pause it, whatever, or you know." Hardison made a zipping motion across his mouth.

"Seriously," Eliot added gruffly. "It's a good movie."

Chastened, the two of them sat quietly for a while.

Then Nate leaned to murmur in her ear, "You know the jewel thief goes to jail at the end of this movie, right?"

She smiled, and murmured back, "Only one of them does. And maybe I identify more with Cary Grant's character. _Ex-_thief, trying to lead an honest life, gets to live happily ever after with the one he loves?"

"Yeah but he doesn't have your legs."

She gave a one-shouldered shrug. "And I stole a lot more than just jewels." Laughing, she reached across him for more popcorn, and they watched the rest of the film like that, ignoring the indignant looks their running commentary was incurring from Hardison and Eliot. And the whole time, there was a low level frisson running between them.

It had started a little over a week ago.

Well, no, that wasn't strictly accurate, because it had all been building for a long time before that. The two of them had come a long way since he'd tracked her down and invited her to join his merry band of outlaws. A lot had happened. And no, in some ways he wasn't the man she remembered from their days playing international cat and mouse, a time when their roles had been so much more easily defined, if a little on the blurry side even then. But this new Nate was a little better every day, a new man emerging from the ashes of his grief. And she liked this man, too, as she got to know him. She thought, after everything that had happened, that he had come to know her better, too.

And then a little over a week ago, one night he'd come to speak to her in her office, one thing had lead to another, and they'd shared, well, one hell of a moment. One hell of a kiss, to be strictly accurate. But they'd been in the middle of a job and other concerns had to come first, and nothing had really been resolved -- no. It was more like it had just been started. Since then, there'd been nothing more than looks, and well the flirting might have increased a little too, along with the growing knowledge that things were definitely progressing between them, or were about to.

It was almost a year ago that she'd told him not to keep her waiting too long.

She wasn't entirely sure where he got his definition of 'too long' from. But whatever the case, she was fairly sure she could make it to the end of the movie.

While the credits of 'To Catch a Thief' rolled, she smiled a secret smile for Nate alone, a smile full of promise, then left him with the others debating the relative benefits and disadvantages of being a thief in 'the dark ages', as Hardison insisted on putting it.

It was a little while later -- not _that_ much later, although Nate would probably say it was -- when she was interrupted. The number of times she'd had to prepare for this role or that, a full length mirror for her office was key, and she was standing, eyeing her outfit critically when suddenly Parker said, "What are you doing?"

Sophie looked around, startled. She hadn't even noticed the door opening, it was weird the way the girl could do that. But since she was here... "What do you think?" she said, spreading her hands to indicate the dress she was wearing.

"I think," Parker said slowly, and a little deviously, "That you're getting ready for your date with Nate." She paused, and added, "That rhymes."

"How do you know that?"

"Because 'date' and 'Nate' sound the same. Oh, you mean about the dating. You two were sitting right next to me, and that movie was boring."

"Oh, you didn't like it?" She held up her hands to forestall the answer. "Never mind, anyway, well it's not a date, we're just having dinner. Nate and I are a little old to be going on 'dates' anyway, or at least to be calling it that."

"Why, how old are you?" Parker asked bluntly. "I didn't know there was an age limit on dating."

She rolled her eyes, but it wasn't just at Parker's usual lack of tact -- that she was used to. "Well to be honest... I'm probably just telling myself that because I'm nervous," she confessed.

"Oh, because it's a date," Parker filled in, looked pleased at herself for showing a spark of insight.

"Yes, and I guess I prefer to think of myself as being a little more together than that."

Parker looked at a loss for a moment, then she said, "The last time I went on a date, it went really well."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Until the fire, I mean."

Sophie opened her mouth to ask, then quickly decided she didn't want to know. "I suppose if we can avoid any destruction of property tonight, I'll consider it a success."

"And I like your dress," Parker added with a small smile, the kind Sophie had come to learn were the ones she meant the most.

"Oh," she replied, heart melting, "Thank you, Parker." She came forward to give the young woman a brief hug.

"This is one of those hugging situations? Okay." Parker brought her arms up and tentatively squeezed her back for a few seconds. "Um, see you later." Once free, she quickly ducked out of the room. Parker still was not entirely comfortable with displays of affection. That, or the poor girl was simply afraid of what came after discussing clothes, bad dates, and hugging, in the girl talk progression of events.

Sophie was just left to think about turning to _Parker_ for comfort. Times, she decided, must really be dire.

"Hey Soph," Nate's voice came through the door a few minutes later as she was trying on shoes, "I'm not trying to rush you but --"

She swung the door open. "What do you think of these shoes with this dress?"

It took a moment for his eyes to travel all the way down to her feet -- well the dress was a keeper at least -- but once they got there he said, "They're great! So, you're ready?"

"Well, no I --"

"Great." He came forward and grabbed her hand and started leading her out the door. "Come on, you look perfect!"

"Wait!" she yelped, just having time to grab her purse from her desk. "This is you not rushing me?"

"I lied. We're going to miss our reservation."

She spotted Hardison briefly, he was craning his head curiously as they passed the kitchen where he was stirring a pot of ramen noodles. She gave him a little wave and then Nate had her out through reception to the lifts.

"You only had to say," she huffed, as he hit the button. She pulled a compact from her purse to check her make-up.

Diplomatically, he said, "Sorry. You do look perfect, though."

Oh, well if that was the way he wanted to play it...

She turned to him with a smile, shutting the compact with a snap. "And you've put on a tie, so I suppose I won't be overdressed." She put her hands up to straighten the knot. "I think you even combed your hair," she added, smoothing the tie down the front of his chest. "You've always cleaned up well." She lifted her eyes to his. Oh, she knew the effect a simple look could have -- and so did he. The moment stretched out, and they had just started to lean in when the elevator dinged its arrival.

They both let out a short, self-conscious laugh at the interruption, and turned away from each other to step between the parted doors. But they stayed close, and Sophie slid her hand around his elbow as she said, "I think this was a really good idea."

The restaurant, it turned out, was quite nice and she took a moment to be exasperated that he would have let her come here without changing first. Then she decided to focus on the quiet, intimate atmosphere of the place, instead. There were tables set for two, a lot of couples seated around them. It was easy to pretend to be normal in a place like this.

"This okay?" Nate asked as they were perusing their menus.

"It's lovely," she assured him, giving him a quick smile before going back to deciding on a starter. _Nothing with garlic_, that was certain.

"I haven't been here before, but it came recommended."

"Oh, by whom?"

"...Google?"

She laughed. "Well, at least it wasn't Eliot." Looking away then, she fingered the stem of her water glass and continued, "And yet why do I have the feeling this was a bit of a last minute thing?" He shrugged and looked innocent. She gave him an arch look. "You were watching _football_, Nate."

"Yeah, because I figured the guys would get involved in the game and Parker wouldn't notice anyway, and then you and I could slip out whenever we wanted to."

"Oh," she said, slightly mollified. "Good plan."

"Thanks," he said dryly. "Course, I didn't know you were going to come along with your own ideas."

"Forgive me for trying to broaden a few horizons. Hardison liked the movie. And you were completely wrong about Parker, by the way."

"What?"

"Never mind."

Parker had noticed, all right. And Hardison had seen them leaving. So much for privacy.

"You know you don't have to try and verbally corner me," Nate said, his tone slightly chastising. "If you want to know something, you can just ask."

"That one's not the easiest habit to break."

"I know." He showed his acceptance with a shrug.

It filled her with warmth, his reaction. He wasn't judging her, he was simply showing that he knew her. It was this that prompted her next words, although they still came out rather tentatively. "Is there anything you want to ask me? I won't make any promises, but I'll try not to load up on ulterior motives."

He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "Actually there is," he confessed. "Something I've always wanted to know. Something... I think you've always wanted to tell me."

She matched his pose, searching his eyes, trying to guess where he was going with this. "Oh?"

"I'd really like to hear you tell me... how you got the Rodin out of Prague in '03. That thing was enormous."

She laughed and sat back. Almost, if she were to be honest, just a little bit relieved at the break in tension. "Now come on," she said, still laughing a little, "You know that, I mean you showed up in Berlin right after. I was impressed -- and so annoyed, I couldn't get rid of you."

He folded his arms on the table, still sitting forward and engaged. "Oh, that was because I got a tip from a private investigator hired by the, uh... the Holtz Foundation, yeah that was it, you know, after the collection of bogus early Baroque manuscripts you sold them?"

"Oh, Brussels," she smiled, remembering. "Wait, a private investigator found me that time? And there I was giving you so much credit. I feel cheated."

"You're right, I should have been more forthcoming with the pain in the ass grifter who had me chasing her all over Europe. Not to mention Northern Africa."

"Don't forget that time in Ho Chi Minh."

"I remember that dress you wore."

"Hmm." She traced the edge of her glass a little dreamily. "I remember the shoes."

"Well you weren't standing where I was."

"They gave me horrible blisters but they were exquisite..."

"Are we really still talking about shoes?"

She moved to rest her chin on her hands. Her legs were crossed, and she let the toes of one foot brush his leg. "I bribed a freight train manager."

He was looking distracted, but cleared his throat. "Uh, what?"

"That's how I got the Rodin out of Prague."

"...Oh. Well see now I feel much better. Uh, knowing that."

She did it again, toes running the full length up and down the back of his calf. The look in his eyes turned a little dangerous, and suddenly he reached under the table. For a moment she thought he was going to grab hold of her foot, but he merely straightened the napkin across his lap. And his mouth twitched in a smirk, knowing where her thoughts had gone.

No more teasing, then, she thought, but she was still feeling brave, and simply went for a different approach. "Okay it's my turn, I think, to ask a question now." His eyebrows raised expectantly. "Nate, I want to know what you've been thinking since the other day, in my office, when we... had our little moment."

"This," he answered simply, as he reached across the table for her hand. "This is what I've been thinking about. You and me, seeing how things go."

"And how are they going?"

"Oh, not bad." They shared a smile. He squeezed her fingers, and the night stretched away in front of them, full of possibility. "Pretty good, actually, I'm feeling pretty confident. Hey, it's you and me," he added expansively, sitting back as the waiter approached their table, "What could possibly go wrong?"

end part four

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	5. Back to the Beginning

A/N: Here we are at the end. Thank you for reading!

Somewhere Between Dinner and an Early Lunch

by LillyPilly

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Epilogue: Back to the Beginning

The sound of laboured breathing filled the room.

Sophie reached up and brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes, then returned her hand to Nate's back where she ran her hand up and down his spine. His breath was hot against the side of her face, and there was a slight hitch as he laughed.

Her answering smile was wide. "Well that was better, wasn't it," she drawled.

He shifted, pushing up on his forearms to lift his weight off her. She missed it instantly. But as he moved, her hands slid from his back, over his shoulders to cradle his face, and the way he was looking at her was not something she would have given up, either.

"Couldn't have been any worse," he enunciated clearly and sincerely, and then came back down to kiss her warmly.

"Mm," she sighed, her breathing easing back to normal. _So_ much better. This time had been fast and frantic and messy, and she was going to have a bruised back because they had somehow managed to push everything off the desk but forget the stapler, but a few war wounds were more than worth it as far as she was concerned. It was the imperfections that had made it, well, very nearly perfect.

Nate groaned a little as he straightened, helping her to sit up as he did. She made a small, echoing noise of discomfort as her feet slid to the ground, hip-joints protesting the rough treatment -- not that _she_ was -- and she tugged down her skirt a little while he eased up his trousers. He made a face. Their bodies were cooling rapidly now, and things were getting... sticky.

"We need to shower again," he said.

She leaned into his chest, not yet trusting herself to stand. "Don't worry," she murmured lazily, "We have plenty of time to make ourselves presentable." Just to confirm, she picked up his wrist and looked at his watch.

He checked it himself, resting his chin on the top of her head. "Hey," he said suddenly, angling his face down at her, "Where are the others?

"Now you ask."

"Well, I was distracted... and anyway... I figured you must have gotten rid of them somehow... because that's... how brilliant you are," he was punctuating his words with a series of kisses across her face and down the side of her neck, gentle, loving kisses as his hands stroked her hair and back.

She all but purred under the attention, delighting in the fact that Nate was affectionate after sex, or he was when it didn't involve suffering an ego-crushing blow to his manhood, anyway. Nice to know, she added it to the ever-growing list of details about him she had been amassing ever since their first meeting so many years ago.

It was funny how things turned out sometimes, she thought, as she caught his face in her hands, drawing him away from the curve of her neck so she could press her mouth to his.

"And you don't leave loose ends hanging," he said after a long moment. "You planned this down to a T."

"Pff," she scoffed, "A wing and a prayer, more like. You're one hell of a variable, Nate."

"Not that I'm complaining," he added. A line of kisses crossed her forehead from temple to temple. "By the way," he murmured against her hair, "When you say 'plenty of time' how much time are we talking?"

She tilted her face up to look at him, and found him grinning wickedly. She matched it. "More than enough, if we use it wisely."

Exactly two hours and four minutes after fleeing the building, Hardison, Parker and Eliot re-entered the offices warily, if the hesitant footsteps and the noticeable lack of bickering that usually accompanied the three of them wherever they went were anything to go by. They needn't have worried. Or perhaps they were right to. Sophie wasn't sure what they were expecting to greet them upon their return, but from the looks on their faces when they came into view, it wasn't her and Nate sitting calm and composed in their usual places at the conference table.

Broken furniture, perhaps, she mused. Strewn clothing. There was a reason, after all, that they'd left the door to Nate's office closed.

At any rate, here they all were, and Nate for one was impatient to get back to it. "Hey," he demanded, throwing up his hands as the trio crowded the doorway, "Where have you guys been? You know we've got work to do, come on!"

"I thought you said he'd be in a good mood," Parker hissed at Eliot as she stalked past him to take a seat.

"What? No," Eliot's expression took on a hint of deer-in-headlights about it, "Noo I didn't say that."

"Yes you did, you said he'd be in a really good mood because he finally got mmf!"

Hardison had leapt to cover her mouth with a hand. "Hey now, didn't you hear the man, we're supposed to be working here."

"Yeah, shut up, Parker. Working." Eliot flung himself into a seat as far from Nate as possible.

Hardison released Parker slowly, ready to dive back in if need be. But she simply crossed her arms over her chest and slumped down in her chair. "Is anyone in a good mood?" she muttered.

Sophie and Nate shared a glance, and she saw it, the moment when he almost, _almost_ lost it and broke into a laugh. Or at least a smile. But he held it together, and neither of them gave anything away in their expressions, leaving the younger members of the group to wonder.

She just hoped nobody went into the bathroom any time soon. There was water _everywhere._

fin.

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End file.
